For decades, a man found dead on Adelaide beach left many scratching their heads because no one knew him, but he was finally identified after experts ran DNA matching to locate his descendants.
DNA Matching Helped Identify The Somerton Man
A well-dressed man's body was discovered slumped on an Australian beach on Dec. 1, 1948. Beachgoers in Adelaide found the lifeless body leaning against a seawall on Somerton Beach.
Investigators had no idea who he was, and when no one came forward to identify the man, who was eventually dubbed the "Somerton man," officials had little more to go on than cryptic clues, which included undelivered bus and train tickets, a jacket and tie with their tags removed, and a piece of paper bearing the Persian phrase "tamám shud," which means "finished," were among the items found.
Many theories circulated suggested that the individual known as Somerton Man was either a Cold War spy or a betrayed lover.
However, a researcher claims to have solved the puzzle after more than 70 years. According to Professor Derek Abbott of the University of Adelaide, Somerton Man was Carl Webb. Furthermore, he was an electrical engineer from Melbourne, not a Russian agent.
Together with American genealogist Colleen Fitzpatrick, Abbott conducted her research. The two examined DNA evidence from hairs found in a plaster cast that detectives had created of the man's face more than 50 years prior.
Fitzpatrick explained that she and Abbott began their search for Abbott's relative by building his family tree, starting with a match in a DNA database (a so-called DNA-cousin to Somerton guy). They continued this process until they located Abbott's relative.
At the time, the family tree included roughly 4,000 people. They calculated that Webb was born in 1905, but according to Abbott, he was eventually recognized "as a person with no death record."
Abbott added that they had proof that the Melbourne guy's wife went to South Australia and that he split from her, so it's possible he came to find her.
Fitzpatrick said the finding solved the decades-long mystery. This has been one of the most intriguing cases in Australia's history, and identifying the man as Webb will also unravel the mysteries surrounding his death.
How Did the Somerton Man Died?
After examining the Somerton man, the physician concluded that the guy had passed away from heart failure sometime after two in the morning. However, the physician did not think that the heart failure was a natural cause. He concluded that the mystery guy had been poisoned with a toxin that was both fast-acting and fast-disappearing, making it impossible to find the source.
For his part, Professor Abbott thinks that some of the case's most peculiar elements might not be as weird as they first seem. He doesn't think the Somerton Man was poisoned, for example.
According to him, pathologists in the Victorian age were trained that if there were no apparent reason for the death, they would often recommend a poison. He noted that there was no evidence of poisoning, so it would not be accurate to conclude that it was the case.
He added that the man's spleen was three times larger than it should have been during the autopsy. The doctor surmised that the man may have died from cancer, bacterial or viral infections, or positional asphyxia, among other possible causes of death.
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